Remembering Dr. Bob Bowman, 1934-2013

We just lost a political and military leader whose greatness far surpassed that of all of our post-World War II presidents and generals combined. And many of us in the 9/11 truth and peace movements have lost a friend – a kind and generous man we could completely trust.

USAF Col. Robert M. Bowman, Ph.D. passed away last night at his Florida home. I just spoke with his wife Maggie, who asks that condolences and inquiries about services be sent to Phil Restino of Veterans for Peace: RestinoP(at)aol.com.

Dr. Bob Bowman somehow combined genius-level intelligence (his CalTech Ph.D. was in rocket science) with compassion, spirituality, charisma, and uncommon common sense. If the USA were a meritocracy, he would have been elected President.

His career in public service spanned almost five decades, beginning in the 1960s. A Vietnam-era fighter pilot who flew over 100 combat missions, Dr. Bob came to realize that the war was wrong and the US policies that had produced it were deeply flawed.

Still, he tried to work within the system, and rose to become the director of the USAF’s Space Weapons program (later renamed “Star Wars”) under presidents Ford and Carter.

Dr. Bowman was shocked by the US military leadership’s insistence on pursuing a purely offensive space weapons capacity – whose only purpose was to launch a sneak attack on Russia and prevail in a nuclear war that would kill tens or even hundreds of millions of people. As the Director of what later became the SDI program, Bob Bowman quickly learned that space weapons serve no defensive purpose. They are extremely vulnerable – meaning that whoever strikes first will inevitably obliterate the enemy’s satellites.

The US was filling space with weapons – including “artificial meteorites” to be dropped on enemy targets, and an energy weapon that Bob told me could cause whole cities to go up in flames – because it was planning to strike first.

That first-strike posture has hardened even further since the neocon coup d’état of September 11th, 2001.

Dr. Bowman resigned as Space Weapons Director and blew the whistle on the US military’s first-strike orientation. During the 1980s and 1990s, he did everything he could to expose the big lie that “Star Wars” was a defensive project, and to work for a sensible, fiscally-responsible, genuinely defensive military posture.

In the wake of 9/11, Bob Bowman’s whistleblowing rose to heroic heights. Based on his experience as a fighter pilot, Bob knew that every time a commercial plane goes significantly off-course, a military fighter plane shows up next to it within about ten minutes. The fighter pilot rocks its wings as a signal to “follow me” and get back on course.

So how did four allegedly hijacked planes supposedly fly around the American skies for so long on 9/11 without any interference from our fighter jets? By about 8:10 a.m. on 9/11, NORAD, the NTSB and the Secret Service knew that there were in-flight emergencies (apparent hijackings) occurring. Yet we are told that hijacked commercial jetliners flew around the country completely unmolested by our air defenses, hitting the Towers at 8:46 and 9:03 a.m., the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m., and crashing in Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. – almost two hours after the alert was sounded!

You don’t have to be a fighter pilot and a rocket scientist to know that this story is completely ludicrous.

A smaller, more self-interested man with Bob’s background would have decided to keep his mouth shut and enjoy his retirement. Not Bob. Instead, he started speaking out – forcefully and responsibly – against the criminals who had destroyed American democracy. His speeches covered all the bases, and his moderate but forceful presentation was perfect for reaching new audiences, especially left-leaning people and libertarians.

Dr. Bob Bowman made the following video to help awaken the American people to the 9/11 state crime against democracy:

I personally paid for Bob’s airline ticket to attend the 2006 9/11 Truth convention in Chicago, the national “coming out party” for 9/11 truth. I thought it was that important that he attend.

After Sean Hannity and I duked it out on Fox News, Hannity wanted to bring me back for a second round. But I had promised University of Wisconsin Provost Patrick Farrell that I wouldn’t do that. So I told Hannity to bring on Bob Bowman – the most credible and credentialed guy I could think of – to talk about 9/11.

Having floated long-shot presidential efforts before, in 2006 Bob entered a race he knew he could win: An effort to unseat long-term Republican incumbent Dave Weldon in the historically Republican 15th Congressional District of Florida. Bob explicitly campaigned as a 9/11 truth candidate, and it earned him hysterical mainstream media vilification – and a lot of votes. He won the primary – AND the general election. According to the exit polls, Bob beat Weldon in a 55 to 45 percent landslide. Rigged voting machines apparently flipped that outcome for the official count. Bob repeatedly stated afterwards that he knew the election had been stolen, and that he would not run for office again in a country whose voting machines are rigged.

In 2008, Bob endorsed my campaign for Congress in Wisconsin, even though I was running as a Libertarian. Bob had urged people to run in major party primaries rather than third parties, but I was so sick of the major parties I couldn’t stomach being called a Democrat (and would rather die than accept the label “Republican” – an identity several notches below “child molester” and “war criminal”). Bob generously humored me, and even traveled to Wisconsin for a fund-raiser.

Bob spent two days living in his motor home parked at the house end of my 700-foot-long driveway. Unfortunately, the driveway was tightly surrounded by pine trees, and I had neglected to tell him that there was no way to turn around. So when he left, Bob had to use his fighter pilot skills to jockey that behemoth out as he slowly backed up 700 feet down a curving gravel path between pine trees, with me standing behind him yelling directions to make sure a branch didn’t take off his side mirror.

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